The present application claims the priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 00-0353121, filed in Japan on Nov. 20, 2000, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, an image processing system, and an image-job linking method for linking a plurality of image jobs to be treated by a digital copy machine, a printer, a facsimile machine, and the like, and thereby preparing a document composed of different types of images and printing sheets.
2. Description of Related Art
A kind of digital copy machine, which is an image processing apparatus and image forming apparatus, has the function of linking a plurality of image jobs, for example, for the purpose of preparing a document into which another document containing image information is inserted at a specific position.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications No. Hei 6-297781 and No. Hei 7-78181 disclose configurations in which image jobs are stored in a memory and in which the image jobs are rearranged and linked when the image jobs are selected using a job reference sheet, an index sheet, or the like.
Further, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. Hei 11-243463 discloses a configuration in which a plurality of stored image jobs can be linked in an arbitrary order.
In the configurations shown in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publications No. Hei 6-297781 and No. Hei 7-78181, the information indicating the document structure, that is, which image jobs are to be rearranged cannot be treated independently of the information indicating the procedure of rearranging these image jobs. This causes a poor operational flexibility. For example, when part of the linked image jobs is to be replaced with other image jobs, it is a tedious job of outputting a job reference sheet and thereby inserting the new image jobs at desired positions.
Further, in the configuration shown in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. Hei 11-243463, in order to rearrange a document, a user needs to select image jobs in the order of rearrangement.
The present invention has been devised to resolve such problems. An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, an image processing system, and an image-job linking method capable of easily preparing a linked document composed of different types of images and printing sheets without tedious work.
The above-mentioned problem is resolved by an image processing apparatus comprising a memory for storing a plurality of management jobs, each of the management jobs defining linkage data for linking a plurality of image jobs, each of the image jobs containing image data; a selector for selecting a management job among said plurality of management jobs stored in said memory; and a controller for linking said plurality of image jobs based on the linkage data defined in said selected management job selected by said selector.
In the image processing apparatus, said plurality of management jobs each defining linkage data for linking said plurality of image jobs each containing image data are stored. When a predetermined management job is selected, said plurality of image jobs are linked on the basis of the linkage data defined in the selected management job.
In other words, the information of said plurality of image jobs can be treated independently of the information of said data for linking said plurality of image jobs. This permits easy preparation of a linked document composed of plural kinds of images and printing sheets.
In this image processing apparatus, said linkage data defined in each said management job may be data indicating the order of linking said plurality of image jobs. In this case, said plurality of image jobs are linked in said order of linkage.
In the image processing apparatus, said linkage data defined in each said management job may include data indicating a post-process to be applied to the linked image jobs. In this case, said post-process is applied to said linked image jobs.
In the image processing apparatus, said linkage data defined in each said management job may be data for linking a second image job as a background image to a first image job. In this case, said second image job is linked as a background image to said first image job.
In the image processing apparatus, said linkage data defined in each said management job may include data indicating image processing to be applied to said plurality of image jobs. In this case, said image processing is applied to said plurality of image jobs.
The image processing apparatus may comprise image-job selecting means for selecting a plurality of image jobs to be linked according to said selected management job. In this case, said plurality of image jobs are selected and then linked according to said selected management job.
Further, the above-mentioned problem is resolved by an image forming apparatus comprising a memory for storing a plurality of management jobs, each of the plurality of management jobs defining linkage data for linking a plurality of image jobs, each of the plurality of image jobs containing image data; a selector for selecting a management job among said plurality of management jobs stored in said memory; an image forming device; and a controller for causing said image forming device to output said plurality of image jobs in a linked state with each other based on the linkage data defined in said management job selected by said selecting means.
In the image forming apparatus, said plurality of management jobs stored in said storing means are used in linking said image jobs. When a predetermined management job is selected, said image forming means outputs said plurality of image jobs in a linked state with each other on the basis of the linkage data defined in said selected management job. This configuration permits easy acquisition of a document composed of plural kinds of images and printing sheets.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned problem is resolved by an image processing system comprising a memory for storing a plurality of management jobs, each of the plurality of management jobs defining linkage data for linking a plurality of image jobs, each of the plurality of image jobs containing image data received from an external computer; a selector for selecting a management job among said plurality of management jobs stored in said memory; and a controller for causing the process of linking said plurality of image jobs based on the linkage data defined in said management job selected by said selector.
In the image processing system, said plurality of management jobs stored in said storing means are used in linking said plurality of image jobs each received from an external computer. When a predetermined management job is selected among said plurality of management jobs, said plurality of image jobs are linked on the basis of the linkage data defined in said selected management job. Accordingly, the information of the plurality of image jobs can be treated independently of the information of the linkage data for the image jobs. This permits easy preparation of a document composed of plural kinds of images and printing sheets.
Further, the above-mentioned problem is resolved by an image-job linking method for linking a plurality of image jobs each containing image data, comprising the steps of storing in a memory a plurality of management jobs, each of the plurality of management jobs defining linkage data for linking said plurality of image jobs; selecting one of the management jobs from said memory; and linking said plurality of image jobs based on the linkage data defined in said selected management job.
In the image-job linking method, said plurality of management jobs stored in said storing means are used as default in linking said plurality of image jobs. When a predetermined management job is selected among said plurality of management jobs, said plurality of image jobs are linked on the basis of the linkage data defined in said selected management job.
In the image processing apparatus, the image forming apparatus, the image processing system, and the image-job linking method described above, the objective data for the linkage may be processed on a page basis. In this case, the linkage is processed on a page basis.